Bryan Wants More Chocolate

There is nothing quite like the rich, savory taste of a smooth, dark, Hershey's chocolate bar. Or is there? This weekend I was awakened to a whole new world of tasty brown treats. Here is my account, slightly embellished for your enjoyment.

Saturday night we went to a local grocery store to grab some snacks. While roaming the rows of unfamiliar food stuffs labeled with names that look like a handful of letters illogically crammed together, I came across a universal sign: a colorful blue wrapper with a picture of a scrumptious looking chocolate bar on the front. "Swiss Chocolate," the hunk of tin-foil wrapped bliss boasted, and being the tight money-saver that I am, I thought to myself, "nah, probably way to expensive." But I had overlooked one important fact: The Netherlands is not far from Switzerland. The small black numbers beneath this fine Swiss export read €0.36; which I estimated to be less than $0.50. At that moment, I made a life-changing decision: €0.36 for a candy bar that had more milk-chocolate than a $1.00 Hershey bar is too good of a deal to miss. So I did what any typically impulsive chocolate-loving American would do, I purchased the fine treasure bundled in a Willy-Wonka-like wrapper. I could hardly contain my excitement as I softly rested my great discovery on the grocery-store cash-register conveyer belt. My heart skipped a beat or two when I dug through my pocket for the multi-national foreign coins to pay the angel who was uniting me with my own little piece of heaven. And when we finally arrived at the house, I could no longer hold myself back. The whole world disappeared; only the blue paper and the riches it held within existed in my universe. The moment was finally here; wide eyed like a child on Christmas morning, my hands, shaking with joy and wonderment, unwrapped the sky-blue paper and the silver foil underneath. The prize became visible; the soft milk chocolate color, the smooth texture, the pleasant aroma, and finally...

When I came to, the whole world was different. You couldn't find a happier boy; all of the colors of the spectrum were more vivid, the sun reflected off the dew, the cold winds of winter had given way to the soft warm breeze of spring-time, birds started singing lovely ballads and operas; I was in love. If I didn't come to Europe for this chocolate, I certainly should have.

There is one minor problem: I forgot her name.